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"Ha!" cried the King, "he who fled from our pursuivant?"

"The same," continued Archibald. Your Highness did once doubt my loyalty let the corpse of that stout captain speak for it."(He pointed to the body of Swart, who lay across the blade of his two-handed sword)"Though, perhaps, this token will suffice. Thy Lord's Ancient sleeps with the Alman captain."

He untied the sash which was girt around his waist, and unfolding it laid it at the feet of the King. It bore the well-known arms of De la PoleAzure, a fess between three Leopards' heads Or; a label of three Argent.

"'Tis the Earl of Lincoln's banner!" exclaimed Henry-" this is wonderful! Your sword, my Lord of Oxford."

The Earl presented his sword to the King, and Archibald Mervyn dropping on one knee, rose up a knight.

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A few words will suffice for the sequel of this tale. After his escape, Archibald Mervyn repaired to the court of the Duchess of Burgundy as soon as he reached the continent, and became acquainted with the whole proceedings of the malcontents, whom he closely watched until their arrival in England. Fortunately he had, on the day previously to the battle met with a party of Wiltshiremen, who agreed to assist him in his attack upon Swart, upon a promise that they should be amply rewarded for their aid. Archibald did not forget that promise: his courage and address had gained him the applause and favour of the King, who restored to him his estates, and conferred upon him many honours.

Ere the week was out, the bells of Blunsdon were ringing loudly to celebrate his return to the home of his ancestors. The villagers were drunk with joy, and scattered flowers in his path. Sir Archibald Mervyn (for his curtailed pennon proclaimed him a Knight Banneret) as he entered the dwelling from which he had been so cruelly torn, and clasped his beautiful partner to his bosom, forgot the months of misery he had endured since their separation.

ST. EUGENIUS.

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THERE are some circumstances attending the relics of this saint, which may gratify the curious, or divert the idle reader.

Having laboured with extraordinary success for some years in his see of To

ledo (the Catholic writers make him an archbishop, though the dignity was unknown in Spain during the seven first centuries), this prelate went to France, to visit his mastsr, Dionysius the Areopagite. As he drew near Paris, he was asked by some Roman soldiers, what God he worshipped? "I am a Christian!" was the reply. He was immediately beheaded, and buried no one knew where.

But Eugenius was too great a favourite with Heaven for his corpse to lie for ever in obscurity. One Hercoldus, a man of distinction, being sick, a venerable-looking person appeared to him in a dream; commanded him to arise, to go to a neighbouring lake, to draw thence the body of Eugenius, and cause it to be interred with all due honour. Hercoldus accordingly arose, as well as ever he had been in his life; and, attended by a great multitude of people, he went to the lake, and drew out the corpse in as fine a state of preservation as if the head had but just been lopped off. He thought no place could be more suitable for such a relic than the abbey of St. Denis; but the oxen which he had yoked to the team would not stir a foot in that direction: when left to themselves, they turned off to a little field, where a church was erected to receive the holy prize. But this corpse seems to have been somewhat whimsical: being carried in procession some ages afterwards to the church of St. Denis, and laid on the high altar, it refused to return to its former resting place; no force could move it an inch. What could be more clear than that the disciple wished to remain with the master? The monks this time removed it from the altar with ease, and laid it in a chapel within the monastery.

The mortification of the good people at Toledo was extreme on hearing of these wondrous things: the question now was how to obtain a portion of so valuable a relic. With some difficulty the king of France was induced to spare an arm, and a solemn annual feast commemorated its arrival. Finally, in the time of Henry de Valois (1565), Philip II. was fortunate enough to beg the remainder of the body; which has ever since enriched the bony treasury of that ancient cathedral.

CUBA FISHERMEN.
Continued from p. 61.

I could not help smiling at the grandeur of Dick's emphasis on the all,

when twenty hands, one-third of them boys, and the others landsmen, scrambled up from below, and began to pull and haul in no very seamanlike fashion. He noticed it. "Ah, Tom, I know what you are grinning at, but I fear it has been no laughing matter to my poor boats' crew-all my best hands gone, God help me!"

Presently being under the Firebrand's lee quarter, we lowered down the boat and went on board, where, for the first time, the extreme ludicrousness of my appearance and following flashed on

me.

There we were all in a bunch, the dog, Mr. and Mrs. Mangrove, and Thomas Cringle, gent., such in appearance as I shall shortly describe them.

Old Richard Gasket, Esq., first clambered up the side, and made his bow to the Hon. Captain N, who was standing near the gangway, on the snow-white deck, where every thing was in the most apple-pie order, himself, both in mind and apparel, the most polished concern in the ship, amidst a group of officers; while the whole crew, with the exception of the unfortunate absentees in the cutter, were scrambling to get a good view of us.

I have already said, that my uniform was torn to pieces; trousers ditto; my shoes had parted company in the quagmire; and as for hat, it was left in my cot. I had a dirty bandage tied round my neck, performing the twofold office of a cravat and a dressing to my wound; while the blood from the scratches had dried into black streaks adown and across my face and paws, and I was altogether so begrimed with mud that my mother would not have known me. Dick made his salam, and then took up a position beside the sally port, with an important face, like a showman exhibiting wild beasteses, a regular "stirhim-up-with-a-long-pole" sort of look. -I followed him-"This is Lieutenant Cringle, Captain N——."

"The devil it is!" said N- try ing in vain to keep his gravity. "Why, I see it is-How do you do, Mr. Cringle? glad to see you."

"This is Peter Mangrove, branchpilot," continuing Gasket, as Peter, bowing, tried to slide past out of sight. Till this instant I had not had time to look at him-he was even a much queerer-looking figure than myself. He had been encumbered with no garment beside his trowsers when started, and these had been reduced, in the scramble through the brake, to

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a waistband and two knee-bands, from which a few shreds fluttered in the breeze, the rest of his canvas having been entirely torn out of the bolt-ropes. For an upper dress he had borrowed a waistcoat without sleeves from the purser of the schooner, which hung loose and unbuttoned before, while behind, being somewhat of the shortest, some very prominent parts of his stern frame were disclosed, as even an apology for a shirt had he none. Being a decent man, however, he had tied his large straw hat round his waist, by strings fastened to the broad brims, which nearly met behind, so that the crown covered his loins before, like a petard, while the sameness of his black naked body was relieved by being laced with blood from numberless lacerations.

Next came the female-"This is the pilot's wife, Captain N," again sung out old Dick; but decency won't let me venture on a description of poor Nancy's equipment, beyond mentioning, that one of the Gleam's crew had given her a pair of old trowsers, which, as a sailor has no bottom, and Nancy was not a sailor, were most ludicrously scanty at top, and devil another rag of any kind had the poor creature on, but a handkerchief across her bosom. There was no standing all this; the crew forward and in the waist were all on the broad grin, while the officers, after struggling to maintain their gravity un. til they were nearly suffocated, fairly gave in, and the whole ship echoed with the most uproarious laughter; a young villain, whether a Mid or no 1 could not tell, yelling out in the throng "Hurra for Tom Cringle's Tail!"

I was fairly beginning to lose countenance, when up jumped Sneezer to my relief out of the boat, with an old cocked hat lashed on his head, a marine's jacket buttoned round his body, and his coal-black muzzle bedaubed with pipe-clay, regularly monkey fied, the momentary handiwork of some wicked little reefers, while a small pipe sung out quietly, as if not intended to reach the quarter-deck, although it did do so. "And here comes the last joint of Mr. Cringle's Tail." The dog began floundering and jumping about, and walloping amongst the people, most of whom knew him, and immediately drew their attention from me and my party to himself; for away they all bundled forward, dog and men tumbling and scrambling about like so many children, leaving the coast clear to me

and my attendants. The absurdity of the whole exhibition had for an instant, even under the very nose of a proverbially taught hand, led to freedoms which I had believed impossible in a man-of-war. However, there was too much serious matter in hand, independently of any other consideration, to allow the merriment created by our appearance to last long. Captain N, immediately on being informed how matters stood, with seamanlike promptitude determined to lighten the Gleam, and send her in with the boats, for the purpose of destroying the haunt of the pirates, and recovering the men, if they were still alive; but before any thing could be done, it came on to blow, and for a week we had great difficulty in maintaining our position off the coast against the strength of the gale and lee current. It was on the Sunday morning after I had escaped that it moderated sufficiently for our purpose, when both vessels stood close in, and Peter and I were sent to reconnoitre the entrance of the port in the gig. Having sounded and taken the bearings of the land, we returned on board, when the Gleam's provisions were taken out and her water started. The ballast was then shifted, so as to bring her by the head, that she might thus draw less water by being on an even keel, all sharp vessels of her class requiring much deeper water aft than forward; the corvette's launch, with a 12-pound carronade fitted, was then manned and armed with thirty seamen and marines, under the command of the second lieutenant; the jolly boat, and the two quarter boats, each with twelve men, followed in a string, under the third lieutenant, the master, and the senior midshipman ; thirty picked hands were added to the schooner's crew, and I was desired to take the gig, with six smart hands and Peter Mangrove, and to accompany the whole as pilot; but to pull out of danger so soon as the action commenced, so as to be ready to help any disabled boat, or to carry orders from the commanding officer. At nine in the morning, we gave three cheers, and leaving the corvette, with barely forty hands on board, the Gleam made sail towards the harbour's mouth, with the boats in tow; but when we got within musket-shot of the entrance, the breeze failed us, when the order of sailing was reversed, the boats now taking the schooner in tow, preceded by your humble servant in the gig. We dashed safely through the small canal of blue

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water, which divided the surf at the harbour's mouth, having hit it to a nicety; but when about a pistol shot from the entrance, the channel narrowed to a muddy creek, not more than twenty yards wide, with high trees, and thick under wood close to the water's edge. All was silent, the shone down upon us like the concentrated rays of a burning-glass, and there was no breeze to dissipate the heavy dank mist that hovered over the surface of the unwholesome canal, nor there any appearance of a living thing, save and except a few startled waterfowl, and some guanoes on the trees, and now and then an alligator like a black log of charred wood, would roll off a slimy bank of brown mud, with a splash into the water. We rowed on, the schooner every now and then taking the ground, but she was always quickly warped off again by a kedge; at length, after we had in all proceeded it might be about a mile from the beach, we came to a broom of strong timber clamped with iron, stretching across the creek. We were not unprepared for this; one of the two old 32-pound carronades, which, in anticipation of some obstruction of the sort, had been got on deck from amongst the Gleam's ballast, and properly slung, was now made fast to the middle timber of the boom, and let go, when the weight of it sunk it to the bottom, and we passed on. We pulled on for about half a mile further, when I noticed, high up on a sunny cliff, that shot boldly out into the clear blue heavens, a small red flag suddenly ran up to the top of a tall, scathed, branchless palm tree, where it flared for a moment in the breeze like the flame of a torch, and then as suddenly disappeared. "Come they are on the look-out for us I see.' The hills continued to close on us as we advanced, and that so precipitously that we might have been crushed to pieces had half a dozen active fellows, without any risk to themselves, for the trees would have screened them, simply loosened some of the fragments of rock that impended over us so threateningly, it seemed, as if a little finger could have sent them bounding and thundering, down the mountain side; but this either was not the game of the people we were in search of, or Obed's spirit and energy had been crushed out of him by the heart-depressing belief that his hours were numbered, for no active obstruction was offered. We now suddenly rounded an abrupt corner of the

creek, and there we were full in front of the schooners, who, with the felucca in advance, were lying in line of battle, with springs on their cables. The horrible black pennant was, in the present instance, nowhere to be seen; indeed, why such an impolitic step as ever to have shown it at all was taken in the first attack, I never could un⚫derstand, for the force was too small to have created any serious fear of being captured, (unless indeed it had been taken for an advanced guard, supported by a stronger,) while it must have appeared probable to Obediah, that the loss of the two boats would in all likelihood lead to a more powerful attempt, when, if it were successful, the damning fact of having fought under such an infernal emblem must have insured a pirate's death on the gibbet to every soul who was taken, unless he had intended to have murdered all the witnesses of it. But since proof in my person and the pilot's existed, now, if ever, was the time for mortal resistance and to have hoisted it, for they knew that they all fought with halters about their necks. They had all the Spanish flag flying except the Wave, which showed American colours, and the felucca, which had a white flag hoisted, from which last, whenever our gig appeared, a canoe shoved off, and pulled towards us. The officer, if such he might be called, also carried a white flag in his hand. He was a daringlooking fellow, and dashed up along side of me. The incomphrensible folly of trying at this time of day to cloak the real character of the vessels, puzzled me, and does so to this hour. I have never got a clew to it, unless it was that Obed's strong mind had given way before his superstitious fears, and others had now assumed the right of both judging and acting for him in this his closing scene. He at once recognised me, but seemed neither surprised nor disconcerted at seeing me, or the strength of the force which accompanied

me.

He asked me in Spanish if I coinmanded it; I told him I did not, that the captain of the schooner was the senior officer. "Then will you be good enough, Mr. Cringle, to go on board with me, to interpret for me?"-"Certainly." In half a minute we were both on the Gleam's deck, the crews of the boats that had her in tow lying on their oars. "You are the commander of this force?" said the Spaniard. "I am," said old Gasket, who had figged himself out in full puff after the manner of the an

cients, as if he had been going to church, instead of to fight; "and who the hell are you?" "I command one of these Spanish schooners, sir, which your boats so unwarrantably attacked a week ago, although you are at peace with Spain. But even had they been enemies, they were in a friendly port, which should have protected them.""All very good oysters," quoth old Dick; "and pray was it an honest trick of you, or your friend, to cabbage my young friend, Lieutenant Cringle there, as if you had been slavers kidnapping the Bungoes in the Bight of Biafra, and then to fire on and murder my people when sent in to claim him." "As to carrying off that young gentleman, it was no affair of ours; he was brought away by the master of that American schooner; but so far as regards firing on your people, I believe they fired first. But they are not murdered; on the contrary, they have been well used, and are now on board that felucca. I am come to surrender the whole fifteen to you."-"The whole fifteen! and what have you made of the other twelve ?"-" Gastados," said the fellow, with all the sangfroid in in the world, "gastados, (spent or expended) by their own folly.

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Oh, they are expended, are theythen give us the fifteen."- Certainly, but you will in this case withdraw your force, of course?" "We shall see about that,-go and send us the men." He jumped down into the canoe, and shoved off;-whenever he reached the felucca, he struck the white flag, and hoisted the Spanish in its stead, and by hauling on a spring, he brought her to cover the largest schooner so effectually that we could not fire a shot at her without going through the felucca. We could see all the men leave this latter vessel in two canoes, and go on board one of the other craft. There was now no time to be lost, so I dashed at the felucca in the gig, and broke open the hatches, where we found the captured seamen and their gallant leader, Lieutenant ***, in a sorry plight, expecting nothing but to be blown up, or instant death by shot or the knife. We released them, and, sending to the Gleam for ammunition and small arms, led the way in the felucca, by Mr. Gasket's orders, to the attack, the corvette's launch supporting us; while the schooner with the other craft were scraping up as fast as they could. We made straight for the largest schooner, which with her consorts now opened a

heavy fire of grape and musketry, which we returned with interest. I can tell little of what took place till 1 found myself on the pirate's quarter-deck, after a desperate tussle, and having driven the crew overbroad, with dead and wounded men thickly strewn about, and our fellows busy firing at their surviving antagonists, as they were trying to gain the shore by swimming. Although the schooner we carried was the Commodore, and commanded by Obediah in person, yet the pirates, that is, the Spanish part of them, by no means showed the fight I expected. While we were approaching, no fire could be hotter, and their yells and cheers were tremendous; but the instant we laid her alongside with the felucca, and swept her decks with a discharge of grape from the carronade, under cover of which we boarded on the quarter, while the launch's people scrambled up at the bows, their hearts failed them, a regular panic overtook them, and they jumped overboard, without waiting for a taste either of cutlass or boarding-pike. The captain himself, however, with about ten Americans stood at bay round the long gun which, notwithstanding their great inferiority in point of numbers to our party, they manfully fired three several times at us, after we had carried her aft; but we were so close that the grape came past us like a round shot, and only kilÎed one hand at each discharge, whereas at thirty yards further off it might have made a pretty "tableau" of the whole party, by having had room to spread. 1 hailed Obed twice to surrender, as our people, staggered by the extreme hardihood of the small group, hung back for an instant; but he either did not hear me, or would not, for the only reply he seemed inclined to make was by slewing round the gun so as to bring me on with it, and the next moment a general rush was made, when the whole party was cut down, with three exceptions, one of whom was Obed himself, who getting on the gun, made a desperate bound over the men's heads, and jumped overboard. He struck out gallantly, the shot pattering round him like the first of a thunder shower, but he dived apparent ly unhurt, and I lost sight of him.

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The other vessels having also been carried, the firing was all on our side by this time, and 1, along with the other officers, was exerting myself to stop the butchery. "Cease firing, men; for shame, you see they no

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longer resist"-And my voice obeyed by all except the fifteen we had released, who were absolutely mad with fury-perfect fiends; such uncontrollable fierceness I had never witnessed,—indeed, I had nearly cut one of them down before I could make them knock off firing. "Don't fire, sir," cried I to one. "Ay, ay, sir; but that scoundred made me wash his shirts,” and he let drive at a poor devil, who was squattering and swimming away towards the shore, and shot him through the head. "By heavens! I will run you through, if you fire at that man!" shouted to another, a marine, who was taking aim at no less a personage than friend Obed, who had risen to breathe, and was swimming after the others, but the very last man of all. "No, by G! he made me wash his trowsers, sir." He fired-the pirate stretched out his arms, turned slowly on his back, with his face towards me. 1 thought he gave me a sort of "Et tu, Brute" look, but I dare say it was fancy

his feet began to sink, and he gradually disappeared,-a few bubbles of froth and blood marking the spot where he went down. He had been shot dead. I will not attempt to describe my feelings at this moment,-they burned themselves in on my heart at the time, and the impression is in lelible. Whether I had or had not acted, in one sense, unjustly, by thrusting myself so conspicuously forward in the attempt to capture him after what had passed between us, forced itself upon my judgment. I had certainly promised that I would, in no way that I could help, be instrumental in his destruction or seizure, provided he landed me at St. Jago, or put me on board a friendly vessel. He did neither, so his part of the compact might be considered broken; but then it was out of his power to have fulfilled it, besides, he not only threatened my life subsequently, but actually wounded me; still, however, on great provocation. But what "is writ, is writ." He has gone to his account, pirate as he was, murderer if you will; yet I had, and still have, a tear for his memory,-and many a time have I prayed on my bare knees that his blue agonized dying look might be erased from my memory;-but this can never be. What he had been I never learned; but it is my deliberate opinion, that with a clear stage and opportunity, he would have forced himself out from the surface of society for good or for evil. The unfortunates who

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